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I enjoy Zevon’s live cover of Gunslinger, too. Brings some knife-edge passion into it, whether the song deserves it or not.

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Minor note:

"and quite a few of the songs would later get covered by UK artists"

later

"and equally telling that ... pretty much nobody ever cared about covering these songs"

I know Downliners Sect also did 'Cadillac' (not well), but not many covers from noteworthy artists.

Well Van Morrison recently (2017) did Ride On Josephine (also not well), and I guess he's UK.

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Thank you, yes, that's a rather silly self-contradiction. We can eliminate "quite" from the first sentence, I believe, and leave just "a few".

The funny thing about Van Morrison's cover of 'Ride On Josephine' (also applies to Thorogood, I believe) is that he tries to make the song sound more Bo Diddley, whereas Bo Diddley made it sound more Chuck Berry. Both end up a little confused.

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